Hello GBF,

My wife (historic building consultant) and I (architect) are both recently qualified and now have the time to start looking for properties in North London with the hope of fulfilling our dream to 'rescue' an old property and bring it in up to a decent standard of energy efficiency - I've deliberately left that bit vague as I'm aware our current budget is unlikely to cover my own aspirations to build to EnerPHit standards. To give some context, the current contenders are generally Ground Floor apartments in a typical Victorian terrace, so the likely approach will be based on IWI, continuing along the underside of First Floor joists and improving airtightness. If we can find a garden flat then there may be a little new-build extension too.

I'm hoping to post questions as they arise (and once we find something) but to help with the search, I'd appreciate a few pointers on

1) the general feasibility and pitfalls of what we are attempting (I'm thinking of the likely impact on upstairs neighbours' joist ends etc.)
2) what can realistically be achieved with existing single glazed sashes - is retrofitting 3G units a waste of money due to frame losses? Seems a shame to waste good wood.

Apologies if this overlaps with some existing threads - I've not found many posts on our specific situation and would appreciate any advice you can provide...

Thanks in advance,

Tom

There is a good thread called Suspended Floor Insulation - design & experience.

Also as someone who lives in a house with badly fitted, drafty single glazed windows I would say that well fitted dg/tg windows would make a big difference. If money is tight there are other cheaper options to use like secondary glazing or in my case plastic film (not a great look). I did about 4 windows and temperature went up by 3 degrees, but then I live in a sieve.

Posted By: SteamyTeaI just put new pains in my frames .

I have quite enough old pains in my old frame.. Sorry ST - some typos are just too good.

Thanks for the comments.

I'm assuming we should avoid the end of terraces due to the additional external wall?

Whether we live in while we renovate comes down to the property (and my wife's tolerance of living in a building site..!) We recently looked at one that was just 30sqm so there would have been no way of living in it at the same time.

On the glazing issue, I've just found the 'Thermally efficient sash window supplier sought' thread here which seems to suggest that it's not madness to attempt a retrofit - we just need to look for deep existing frames!

That 'Suspended Floor Insulation' thread is fantastic. I wasn't aware of the Cambridge Carbon Footprint site either, so I've clearly got lots of lunchtime reading to do...